Noemia
The dark-skinned girl points at you with a small gasp and runs up to you as you approach. She speaks quickly, with a huge smile and a voice full of wonder. "I heard about you! Mama told me you're amazing!" Noemia Rogaceu is the fourteen-year-old daughter of Alejandra and Ballantino, and the twin sister of Leão. A vivacious and tough-talking girl, Noemia is said to be very much like her mother when the latter was the same age, though the family's recent relocation to Willowdale has introduced Noemia to strange and marvellous new things which may yet help her grow to be a very different sort of person. She has her mother's dark skin and hair colour, though she keeps hers very short and thus looks quite boyish. She usually keeps a large set of temple robes for travel as her parents do, but she has a preference for casual travelling clothes or adventuring gear, and often trains in monk clothes given to her by her parents. In the winter, she sports a bison-fur cloak given to her by her parents after their trip to Sawtooth Vale. Noemia is absolutely dedicated to her training. She will always eagerly agree to more training, and while she is rather unfocused when not training, she keeps a very disciplined attitude during practice, and will even respond like a soldier to direct orders from her parents. She has not yet seen combat, though she has travelled outside the wall; as the culmination of her druidic training under Jura, she embarked on a vision quest in the Great Cedar Forest. Prior to her arrival in Willowdale, Noemia had heard stories about its people from her mother's letters, and latched on to specific details which she used to identify Pathfinders she had not yet met. For example, she called Dr. Haiduc the "witch man with amazing hair" and Jura the "nice giant green lady." Encounters with Noemia Noemia has already made herself noticed in Willowdale for her interactions with people she has identified using descriptors gleamed from correspondance with her mother. This has included Pathfinders and the Willowdale citizenry alike, and she has already begun building a rapport with numerous people. Immediately upon arriving in Willowdale, she received from Dr. Haiduc a gigantic rainbow-patterned scarf, which she treasures. She often wears it as her father would wear such a garment; wound around the head, neck, and shoulders. She only takes it off for training and it makes her easily identifiable to people in Willowdale. Even then, she has already managed to get it rather dirty. Noemia somehow appears unaware of the fact that the scarf is in fact one of Dr. Haiduc's animated objects. On meeting Halstein, she was enthralled by the majesty of the Father of All Swords, and reacted defiantly when Halstein tried to frighten her. She then listened with rapt attention as Halstein related the story of the Father, and was even given a small knife which she was told to train with, and Halstein broke with a small thrust from the Father to demonstrate its power. She bowed respectfully to both Halstein and the Father before leaving to recommence her training in earnest. Later, when Halstein attempted to draw a blade against Rahzer'ok, Noemia interceded by jumping between the two and pointing the knife towards Halstein, which both Halstein and Jura took very seriously, admonishing the youth for her rash behaviour. She bowed in apology to Halstein and the Father once more before leaving, and as per her mother's instructions, will not draw the knife again until Jura permits it. She was unimpressed by Enrique's offering of ale, claiming that she had no taste for it. Enrique said that she would have to wait until she was an adult to fully appreciate it, to which she retorted that she was an adult, and that it was not something she liked at all. It is quite possible that she was simply instructed to avoid alcohol, or has some other reason for disliking it. Alejandra later informed him that a number of drunk soldiers from her old outfit once offered her children a drink and, goaded on by her brothers, Noemia drank herself sick. She has had a strong aversion to the taste of alcohol since. She has also met Valconey, and managed to remember his full name and titles during their introductions. She was then astounded once more by the use of magic which the Willowdale Wizard used to create images of fire dragons and levitate large tables. On meeting Old Ned, she recognized him as the man capable of "telling stories that could keep a man awake for a week" and listened with great intensity to the tale of Chickcharney. She has also met Terminus, but was notably frightened by his compulsive reliving of executions, and sheepishly asked Jura if she absolutely had to talk with him again. Druidic Training Almost immediately upon bringing her family to Willowdale, Alejandra was called away to scout the invading Hobgoblin forces. During this outing, Jura assisted in Noemia's daily combat training regimen. Both parties enjoyed these sessions, and through mutual agreement and with Alejandra's blessing Jura began to teach Noemia advanced survival techniques, healing, and other skills appropriate to a druidic initiate. At this time she began to refer to Jura with the title "mestre" or "master". Some of this training occured alongside other initiates such as Rahzer'ok, who she considers a good friend. Other training is proceeding rather differently than that of her peers, as she meditates through a combat-like sequence of forms and movements that heighten her awareness of her immediate surroundings. In Hammer, after a discussion with her parents and teacher Noemia took the Candidate's Vow, embarking on the path to the Third Druidic Circle. Advanced lessons in druidic mysticism have since been punctuated by combat drills, including beast wrestling and unarmed striking with Noemia's new Stone Fist Bracers. On starting her training, Noemia claimed that her desire is to be capable of doing something her mother cannot, at least in the hope of proving that she is capable enough to go on adventures as well. She greatly anticipated her eventual vision quest at the culmination of her studies, and this anticipation seems to have further driven her in her studies. While Jura is appreciative of the young girl's tenacity and dedication, she has not entirely adapted to her student's habit of performing every task to almost unreasonable extremes. For example, Noemia has interpreted Jura's instructions to "defend nature" as an instruction to defend all of nature, everywhere. As a result, Jura found herself frequently adjusting or clarifying her instructions to Noemia. At the same time, Jura took it upon herself to train Noemia's instincts and independent judgment, insisting that Noemia question all orders given to her in the course of her training, with the notable exception of "run." Noemia appears to have approached this aspect of her training as a game in which her task was to see through her teacher's "tricks." Jura instructed Zuni and Noemia to keep an eye on each other in the event that the latter's parents and mestre are all out of town at once and the dinosaur is left in town. As a result, the two have developed what Noemia sees as a sort of friendly rivalry, as Noemia trains by running and Zuni has proven herself more than capable of keeping up with her. Though Noemia is somewhat worried about her inability to outrun a dinosaur, she happily feeds her training companion as many fruits and vegetables as she can find once the race is over. Noemia's much-anticipated vision quest both provided her with a taste of the adventure she had been seeking and with an unexpected test of her identity. She helped Leão to shadow the ritual in contradiction to Jura's explicit instructions otherwise, and when Leão's presence was discovered and Jura grew visibly frustrated by the intrusion, Noemia experienced a rare moment of doubt in herself. Despite this interruption, Noemia was able to complete her vision quest and chose the Bear Totem as her focus as a druid. Afterwards she faced the question of what her vocation meant for her and her relationship with her family, particularly her brother. With support from both Jura and Leão, Noemia remains committed to retaining her values and relationships as a member of the Rogaceu family while taking on new responsibilities as a protector of nature in the druidic tradition. Snowball Fight On the 10th of Nightal, with both her parents and her "mestre" out of town, Noemia took it upon herself to lead Rahzer'ok and the Firewalkers in the day's training routine. However, her inability to speak Goblin meant that keeping the goblins in line was a near impossibility, so she divided the group into two with four Firewalkers on one side and another two, Noemia, and Rahzer'ok on another, and proceeded to teach everyone (through demonstration) how to pack snowballs and throw them at each other. The ensuing snowball battle went on for approximately two hours, and encircled the Boar and Thistle as well as the Adventurer's Guild until the Firewalkers discovered a means of magically setting the snowballs on fire shortly before throwing them. Noemia's team thus had to retreat and find a way to counter this new weapon, when she received unexpected reinforcement from the second floor of the Boar and Thistle, as an unseen individual started throwing snowballs with near-perfect accuracy at Noemia's assailants. The battle thus continued for another two hours, and concluded only when all participants became far too tired to light snowballs on fire or even throw them any longer. Noemia asserts, however, that while training was unproductive, the day itself was quite possibly the best day in Willowdale she has had yet. The truly great snowball fight, however, occured after breakfast on the morning of Yule, during which Noemia stood on a table and announced that the first annual Willowdale Snowball War would commence outside the Boar and Thistle immediately. She immediately divided the group into two teams, the first team consisting of the Rogaceu family, the members of the Sun and Moon Brigade, and the members of the Golden Fields Druid Circle, and the second team consisting of the other Pathfinders and their various followers. The ensuing magically-charged battle lasted for six hours and went well past lunch. Eventually Noemia was the only one on her team who had not retired, and she was fighting both Dr. Haiduc and Rinzler at the very end before being fluffily subdued by Jura in polar bear form. She claimed that Rinzler was her most staunch and fearsome rival and sang her praises of both teams of combatants before definitively awarding victory to the Pathfinders. She hopes that a tradition of snowball war will continue in Willowdale henceforth. Category:Willowdale Category:Follower